Is it important to update to v8.6.0 or can I stick with v8.5.4; bottom line:

Always update. You know that by now.

Cliffsnotes of this update?

Tallon Rolls now trigger a mouse interface event, letting you choose one of the 3 positions offered by them;

If you CTRL-left-click on a remote (probe droid or buzz swarm), you start a mouse interface that lets you relocate them

Tons of overlap bugs/missing interactions have been fixed/added

This was a technically heavy update – lots of case scenarios to cover (which I mostly thought about alone, so this is prone to error) and information to dig out for players as probe droids are launched, relocated, overlapped during movements, etc. I may have missed some cases. As always, please report them in the issues page linked above.

How to Tallon Roll with clicks

Most people will activate Tallon Rolls when they super-reveal a dial (CTRL-S) on the map. With this module update, a new mouse interface will intercept the event before it resolves normally. You’ll be offered the 3 possible positions, each with a silhouette of your ship as well as a clickable dot. Each dot can be white if the position is unobstructed or red if it is. After you click on your chosen dot, the movement is performed and no maneuver template is spawned (prior to this update, tallon rolls would always spawn the template which was used in a centered tallon roll).

Captain Nym revealed a Tallon Roll 3 Right and clicked on the ‘as forward as possible’ option

All of this new functionality also works with the (little known among the Vassal players) direct keyboard shortcuts for Tallon Rolls.

How to attach a buzz swarm on a ship with clicks

After a ship passes through the swarm, an overlap event is triggered (the buzz swarm and the ship flash red, as well as the maneuver template shape). You then ctrl-left click on the swarm token, get presented with white dots on every ship. Once you left click on such a dot, 2 more dots appear in front and back of that ship.

These dots are white if the final position of the swarm token is unobstructed and red if they are. A message informs all players and observers of what’s going on – that an attachment is being attempted and how many legal positions are available. This way, everyone can learn about failing swarms if both dots are red.

How to relocate a DRK-1 Probe Droid with clicks

Same deal here; ctrl-left click on the Probe Droid to activate the mouse GUI. You’ll be presented with the 5 directions it can go towards. After you click on one of them, you get the three choices with white dots that are generally suggesting where the template would pass through (without giving too much information on their precise location).

Automated smart ship mouse GUI placement

While the ship mouse GUI shows a lot of promise, it wasn’t without its hiccups over the last 2 updates. People reported that if you activated a ship that was too close of the top border of the map, the red ‘x’ button that closes down the popup would be out of bounds and unreachable, forcing you to choose a reposition option in order to dismiss the window. This has been fixed by never spawning the popup out of bounds.

A new script has been put in place – it will attempt to spawn the window to the right of the ship by default, sweeping across a 40 degree angle while maintaining a short distance to the ship you activated. It will pick the first position that does not overlap other objects. If it fails to find one, then do 2 more sweeps at increasing distances to the right. If it fails that, redo the whole thing to the left of the ship.

If indeed there are no positions that do not overlap another clickable object, then use the position which had the least amount of them. Here’s the algorithm in action:

Stay tuned for the next update as I’ll roll out the outstanding new look of this ship mouse GUI, done by Jomblr! Can’t wait. You have to realize that the current ship mouse GUI is a totally crappy looking placeholder just as a technological proof-of-concept. You didn’t think I was going for this look forever, huh?

FULL PATCH NOTES:

@Mu0n

Probe Droid Token functionality:

CTRL left-click activates a mouse GUI that pop 5 dots around the probe droid to let you pick a direction with a left click. Once this is chosen, a set of 3 dots in that general direction appears and lets you left-click on one of 3 maneuver choices (straight 2, bank 2 left and right) in order to relocate the token.

During the 2 steps of that process, if you click on empty space, it cancels the process.

A ship landing on, moving through, repositioning (final position and/or template used by the reposition) on it triggers an overlap event.

A ship can spot-check an overlap with a remote (with alt-c)

A movement template (even those spawned after a ship bumps a ship) can spot-check an overlap with a remote (with c)

Buzz Droid Swarm Token functionality:

CTRL left click activates a mouse GUI that pops one big dot on every ship on the map to let you select the ship which will get attached to the buzz swarm droid token. Once the ship is selected, a pair of dots appear in the front and back of that ship, letting you left click your choice.

If the positions are compromised (ie the buzz swarm droid would overlap with an object if it were positioned there), the player activating this GUI will see a red dot appear instead of white. Both players will get a chat log message saying how many positions are possible.

If a red dot spot is chosen, the token will be moved there and trigger an overlap event. (currently forbidden by the game rules, but still there for future proofing and as a teachable moment to players)

During the 2 steps of that process, if you click on empty space, it cancels the process.

A ship landing on, moving through, repositioning (final position and/or template used by the reposition) on it triggers an overlap event.

A ship can spot-check an overlap with a remote (with alt-c)

A movement template (even those spawned after a ship bumps a ship) can spot-check an overlap with a remote (with c)

Tallon Roll resolution with the mouse:

If you super-reveal a tallon roll move with a dial associated with a ship (on the map, using the recent CTRL-S), instead of performing the move and spawning the template, it will offer a visual of the 3 Tallon Roll position choices with a shape, along with clickable dots in order for you to confirm your choice

If you know the keyboard shortcuts that lets you perform a tallon roll, you can also reach the same behavior with them

The illegal (obstructed) positions will be shown with a red dot and the legal ones with a white dot.

If there are no legal positions, you’re forced to go along with it, then click on the ship and perform a ‘c’ (collision resolution) like before.

Squashed Bugs:

The Ship Mouse GUI activated with ctrl-left click will now attempt to avoid “unpleasant” places: where the ‘x’ close button would be out of sight above the map, where the outline is out of bounds. It tries to have no clickable objects underneath it in regions to the right, then to the left of the activated ship; failing that, it minimizes them.

If a ship landed on a gas cloud, it wouldn’t trigger the automatic overlap warning event. The maneuver template used in the movement would do it, but not the ship alone if it was the only one overlapping.

If an obstacle or a remote was already previously rotated using the free rotator functionality (CTRL-R), it would then translate weirdly with the nudge commands (shift-arrow keys).

The ‘Clear Actions’ button on the map toolbar, which is used to clear the side action icons on ships (cycled with shift-a, ctrl-a, etc.) would interact with your opponents dials if they were on the map; you got scolded for attempting to mess with dials which were not your own. This global map command is now ignored.